“It stank of fear and sweat and old smoke.”
As a volunteer firefighter, it is occasionally my job to go into places that we call hostile environments. This would be a situation which contains anything that is bad for you to either breathe or touch. We train for this on a regular basis using simulated fires with smoke machines, and sometimes mazes.
Recently I was able to take part in a practice session with a smoke trailer. This is a trailer that you would normally see on the highway (as in tractor-trailer) with a multi level maze inside it. Once inside you find stairs and tight corners, slopes and trap doors, moving floors and places with no floors at all. There are ladders and tunnels, and even dead ends. Oh, in case I forget, we have to crawl through this, in our fire-fighting gear, with SCBA tanks and masks. It is all done in the dark.
Well, I started in the trailer and went up and down and around, in and out and even backwards a couple of times. And then I ran out of air. SCBA tanks carry air for 20 minutes at normal usage. I was breathing harder than normal and working harder than I usually do. There is an alarm buzzer that goes off when you have approximately 5 min of air left. It is frightening to realize that you only have 5 minutes of air, and you have no idea how much you actually need.
If this had been an actual fire, I would have died. I was about half way through the trailer. In an actual fire, when my air stopped I might have survived a couple of minutes more, then that would have been it. But, because this was a training session, I simply disconnected the regulator and breathed the air in the maze.
It stank. It stank of fear and sweat and old smoke. When I finally came out at the other end of the maze, the first thing I did was remove my helmet and facemask and take a deep breath of cool air.
Now imagine a dawn, almost 2,000 years ago. Imagine a tomb that smells of blood, sweat, rags, damp earth and closed-in air. There is the sound of grinding rock, then the first fresh breath of air in three days. A cool breeze blows in to caress the face uncovered from the burial cloths.
It is because of that that I rejoice. I felt wonder and thanks to be free of a maze that I entered. A dark, stinking maze that I knew had an end. But Jesus entered a darker place. He went to the grave for my sins and to free me from their grasping chains.
His Resurrection sets us free and gives us hope that we can share with everyone we meet. I praise God for this Easter. I praise God for that breath of fresh air I took in after my episode in the trailer. I praise God for the one I will feel when He calls me from the grave.
My buddy Geoff lives in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, Canada.